Tennessee football has a coaching search on its hands. For the first time in five years, Josh Heupel has fired an assistant coach. The Vols are parting ways with defensive coordinator Tim Banks after five seasons.
Tennessee gave Banks a contract extension after last seasons runs to the College Football Playoffs largely on the backs on the defense. But after a poor 2025 season defensively, Heupel decided to make a move and look elsewhere for the leader of the Vols’ defense.
Who will replace Banks? Here’s a look at 11 early candidates.
More From RTI: Tennessee Defensive Coordinator Tim Banks Reportedly Fired After Five Seasons With Josh Heupel
Jim Knowles
The defensive coordinator with the most pedigree nationally is currently out of work. Knowles spent the 2025 season as Penn State’s defensive coordinator and new head coach Matt Campbell is bringing Jon Heacock with him from Iowa State.
Penn State poached Knowles away from Ohio State with a three-year contract worth $3.1 million annually. That to say, Knowless will not be hurting for money and Tennessee will have to make a major financial commitment to land him.
But Knowles is thought of as one of the nation’s best defensive coordinators. Prior to his year at Penn State, Knowles spent three years at Ohio State and four years at Oklahoma State.
Justin Wilcox
Sometimes you’ve got to go back to actually move forward. Wilcox was Derek Dooley’s defensive coordinator for his first two seasons before jumping off a sinking ship and leaving for the defensive coordinator position at Washington.
Wilcox has been Cal’s head coach the last nine years before the Golden Bears fired him earlier this month after a 7-5 season. The 49-year old is back on the market and would be a heck of a hire if Heupel could make it happen.
Whether Wilcox would want to coach next season is a question on its own. It’s a whole other question if he’d want to leave for the SEC. He’s an Oregon native who played his college football for the Ducks. His only stint in the southeast was at Tennessee. The rest of Wilcox coordinator experience came at Boise State, USC and Wisconsin.
Travaris Robinson
Robinson is a coach with an abundance of SEC experience. The 44-year old played his college football at Auburn and has spent the bulk of his coaching career in the SEC with stops at Florida, Auburn, South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia.
The Miami native is currently the co-defensive coordinator at Georgia, a position he’s held the last two seasons. But Glen Schumann and Kirby Smart are the ones with the most say defensively for the Bulldogs. Robinson could get his first true defensive coordinator experience at Tennessee.
Robinson also has a history as a defensive backs coach. Banks coached Tennessee’s safeties. This would make for a seamless transition in that regard.
Ryan Walters
Walters is most known for his two-year unsuccessful stretch as head coach at Purdue, but he has a strong defensive coaching pedigree.
He has served stints as defensive coordinator at Missouri, Illinois and most recently Washington this past season where the Huskies’ defense ranked 22nd nationally in points per game. Maybe most importantly, there’s crossover between Heupel and Walters.
Walters was on Barry Odom’s staff at Missouri during Heupel’s time there as offensive coordinator. Walters also has a history coaching safeties.
Colin Hitschler
Hitschler was James Madison’s defensive coordinator this season where the Dukes enter the College Football Playoff with the nation’s second best scoring defense. He’s also in a unique spot with JMU head coach Bob Chesney leaving for UCLA. Chesney has not announced any of his staff at UCLA yet.
The 39-year old lacks an abundance of defensive coordinator experience but has spent time in the SEC as the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Alabama in 2024.
Hitschler has coached safeties throughout his career which, again, is a plus as Tennessee looks to replace Banks.
Alex Grinch
Grinch is one of the most well known defensive coordinators in the sport. It was a major splash hire back in 2019 when Lincoln Riley poached the Ohio State co-defensive coordinator to run his defense at Oklahoma. Two years later, Riley took Grinch with him to USC.
But Grinch’s star has dimmed in recent years. USC’s defense was terrible leading to his termination after the 2023 season. Grinch went to Wisconsin in a co-defensive coordinator role for a year before landing on Scott Frost’s staff at UCF this season.
Grinch would be a bit of an underwhelming hire, but he has experience as a defensive coordinator in up-tempo offenses and is also a safety coach.
Dave Aranda
Aranda has spent the last six years as head coach at Baylor and he’s set to return in that role in 2025 after a disappointing 5-7 season. But Aranda’s seat will be one of the hottest in the country entering next season after failing to qualify for a bowl game two of the last three years.
Could Aranda look to stay ahead of things by leaving for a defensive coordinator position this offseason. It’s become a popular move from coaches in recent years including Gus Malzahn and Kane Wommack.
Before becoming the head coach at Baylor, Aranda earned the reputation as one of the nation’s best defensive coordinators in four seasons at LSU and three seasons at Wisconsin.
Jim Leonhard
Leonhard was one of the hottest young names in the college coaching profession back in 2022. The seven-year pro earned a reputation as one of the best young defensive coordinators in the country back at Wisconsin from 2017-22.
The former standout safety was Wisconsin’s interim head coach after they Paul Chryst and was a candidate to be head coach before they hired Luke Fickell.
Leonhard spent one year as an analyst at Illinois before jumping to the NFL where he’s been the pass game coordinator for the Denver Broncos the last two years. Sean Peyton also promoted him to assistant head coach this year.
There’s a number of issues with Leonhard. Does he want to even go back to college? Even if he does, Denver is in line to make the playoffs. Tennessee might have to wait a long time to finalize anything with him. Leonhard doesn’t seem very realistic but it would be a home run hire if it happens.
Jerod Mayo
Speaking of semi-unrealistic, splash hires. Mayo has not coached in college a day in his life, but he’s also at a fork in the road in his coaching career. The former All-SEC linebacker spent his entire NFL career with the New England Patriots and then five years as the Patriots’ linebackers coach before serving as head coach in 2024.
New England fired Mayo after just one season as head coach and the former Tennessee linebacker has taken a year off from coaching.
Will Mayo look to get back in the game next season? Conventional wisdom would suggest that he’d stick in the NFL if he does. But he could try his hand at the college game and return to his alma mater.
Randy Shannon
Shannon was Heupel’s defensive coordinator for three years at UCF. He spent the next four years in various roles at Florida State including co-defensive coordinator on the 2023 team that went 13-0 and missed the College Football Playoffs.
The former Miami head coach has a history in the SEC as an assistant coach at Arkansas and defensive coordinator at Florida.
Shannon is 59-years old and would not be a flashy hire. But his experience in the SEC and ties to Heupel make him an option.
William Inge
Inge is serving as Tennessee’s interim defensive coordinator for the Music City Bowl. He was co-defensive coordinator for two years at Washington under Kalen DeBoer so he does have some experience in the role.
It’s hard to imagine that Heupel would fire Banks only to promote someone on the staff, but Inge is probably the fall back option.
